Normal Miguel – Erik Orrantia (Cheyenne Publishing)
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Some books trap you in reality and others charm you with their wit, but I love those that take me places. Setting is just as important as plot and character and becomes even more crucial for some stories. Erik Orrantia’s Normal Miguel is one of those tales.
Miguel Hernandez, a fresh-faced first year teacher just out of school goes to complete a one-year internship in the rural town of Puebla. He finds a stern yet understanding Directora, a randy baker and a rag-tag assortment of poverty-stricken students, but he also finds candymaker Ruben, who awakens Miguel’s love and compassion. They face a year’s worth of trials and tribulations, learning about themselves and their own families in this gracefully romantic book.
Much of the magic for me comes with the portraits of rural Mexico Orrantia presents to us. Framed in dusty shades of brown, gold and chocolate, his landscapes involve and engulf the reader, supplying an engaging backdrop for the drama that takes place in them. And the story of Miguel finding, rejecting and finally accepting love is just as dramatic as they come.
Life inside the walls of the school reminds me of the town of Macondo in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Orrantia hasn’t developed that sweep or scope or mastery of magical realism, but there are enough similarities to convince me he will in time. My one small quibble is that Miguel and Ruben’s relationship is accepted by the school and the town too easily and too widely to be entirely convincing but perhaps Orrantia means that to be one more wrinkle in the veil of fantasy that shades this book.
Miguel’s students are also important in the story, and nowhere do they make more of an impact than in my favorite scene in the book. Miguel has given them so much of himself that they want to give him something of equal importance, leading to a funny, touching scenario that involves an abandoned warehouse and a shoeless bride wearing a stolen wedding dress. It’s marvelous. Erik Orrantia’s Normal Miguel is a deep, rich, warm and rewarding tale that will take the chill off the coldest winter’s night.
No matter where you are.
Reviewed by Jerry Wheeler
Thanks for your comments. I'm so glad that you appreciated the setting; it was part of a dear and personal experience that I wanted to share. The wedding, of course, was pure fiction (not there just yet), though I was inspired by the wedding dress I described that I saw in just such a small town museum. New book called The Equinox Convergence, a drug trade meets Mexican indigenous suspense, coming out this year and later Taxi Rojo which is set in Tijuana. Salud!
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